Philadelphia Flyers Final Player Grades: Philippe Myers

It’s highly unlikely that the NHL will resume its 2019-20 regular season, so we can now fully evaluate the performance of the Philadelphia Flyers. Today we look at defenseman Philippe Myers.

It’s hard to believe at this point that Philippe Myers went undrafted, and that he only signed with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015 after impressing on an amateur tryout as an 18-year old. Since then, it’s been slow and steady progress for the hulking defenseman, and he finally got his chance at the big time with a 21-game look at the end of last season.

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That stretch of games qualified as a moderate success for Myers, as they showed both his raw and still developing talent as well as some rough edges that were going to take a while to overcome. As a result, 2019-20 was going to be key in his progress. And it appeared that the Flyers had a load of confidence in him, making him the team’s de facto main physical presence on the blueline when they traded Radko Gudas for Matt Niskanen.

By also tossing in a trade for Justin Braun, the Flyers now had a third right-handed shot on the blueline, and it seemed like they were setting the stage for Myers to play third-pairing minutes earlier this year before moving into a more prominent role later on.

Unfortunately, that plan went out the window when Myers failed to impress in training camp and the preseason, so he was sent to the Phantoms to start the year. He didn’t get recalled by the Flyers for several weeks, making his NHL debut this season on November 1. But he hit the ice running and hasn’t looked back, even scoring in three straight games shortly after finally joining the big club.

That would be about the extent of his goal-scoring on the year, as Myers lit the lamp just once more over the rest of the season. In the end, he pitched in 16 points in 50 games. It would have been interesting to see what he could have done if he had managed to start the season with the team, but perhaps the time spent back in the AHL ended up being beneficial to him.

The first/second half ice time split that I hypothesized wasn’t that drastic, but Myers’ ice time did bump up over a minute a game from his first 25 games this season to his last 25 games. He ending up playing 17:06 per night on the season as a whole, a number that we should all expect to tick up by a minute or two next year.

Curiously, his regular season was probably already over after he suffered a knee injury just before the league had to pause the season. But if and when the playoffs get here, he should be fully healthy and ready to contribute. And that’s a good thing, because Myers has quickly become an important cog for the Flyers. His ability to both stymie the opposition and also move the puck effectively were on regular display this season. He hasn’t totally cut out the mistakes, but he’s certainly on his way to showing everyone just how smart the Flyers were to sign him almost five years ago.